The game even had the Hockey Night in Canada panel of David Amber, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Kelly Hrudey and Elliotte Friedman giddy with excitement, waiting to see what would happen next and warning viewers to stay in their seats the entire night. They wouldn’t want to miss what happens next — and they weren’t wrong.

But between the past, the lead-up, the goalie fights, and the shade thrown through the media after Saturday’s game, the end result was clear for Flames head coach Geoff Ward.

His team wasn’t good enough.

His team gave up two valuable points on the table.

And his team squandered a chance to pull ahead of their provincial rivals, win their fourth straight game against the Oilers and, instead, were embarrassed 8-3 on home ice.

It was the most goals they’ve allowed all season.

“I mean, everybody saw the same thing,” Ward said, fuming. “They were good and we weren’t. So, what can we control? It’s how we prepare to play. The lessons we take from this? We have to be way more competitive. I thought some of our guys were. I thought as a team, overall, we could have been more competitive. So, yeah.”

This isn’t over, of course. Far from it.

But with six of their next eight games slated against Pacific Division opponents, they have zero time to dwell on what could have been — or who said what about what in which post-game scrum.

Speaking of which, Leon Draisaitl finally broke his silence on what he thought of David Rittich’s bat-flip in Wednesday’s 4-3 shootout win, saying that it was disrespectful: “We hit two posts and he’s celebrating like they just won the Stanley Cup. I get it, they’re excited, and good for them, they won the game in the shootout, but show some respect, I think. That’s my opinion.”

Also weighing is was Mike Smith who is Rittich’s former counterpart-turned Oilers goalie who made headlines by dropping the gloves with Flames netminder and former Edmonton netminder Cam Talbot.

“He’s a fiery guy, but sometimes it goes a little too far,” Smith said. “Sometimes what goes around comes around.”

Flames goalie David Rittich flips his stick in celebration after stopping the Edmonton Oilers in a shootout on Jan. 29.

All of which are interesting story angles, which the Flames refused to entertain leading into Saturday’s rematch. Resident you-know-what-disturber Matthew Tkachuk downplayed it, telling Scott Oake in the pre-game interview that: “It was just another game. Honestly.” That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Saturday was the biggest game to date for both teams and what went down stoked feelings of nostalgia as people of a certain generation remembered heated versions of the Battle of Alberta from the past.

Nothing will ever top the first-ever BOA goalie fight, although expect some fireworks and scores to be settled in the final meeting of the season on April 4 at Calgary and, if we’re lucky, playoffs.

But if the Flames are focused on all of that at the start of this week — beginning with Tuesday’s game against the visiting San Jose Sharks (7 p.m., Sportsnet West, Sportsnet 960 the Fan) — they’re missing the point.

“Collectively, we needed to be way better,” Ward said. “At this time of the year, defence gives you a chance to win. (Saturday) our defensive game was exposed a little bit and put us behind the eight ball early.”

The Flames are 27-20-6 and, heading into Sunday’s action and, after Saturday’s game, woke up sitting fourth in the Pacific Division. Five points separated fifth place (Arizona) from first place (Vancouver) and every game they squander from now until April matters.

Ward hoped that desperation starts to sink in.

“I want (this) feeling to stick with us for a while, for sure,” he said. “If you’re not a little bit angry in your stomach about what happened tonight and it’s not bothering you, you’ve probably got an issue. So, we need to harness that a little bit … we have to make sure our minds get there, that we take what we need to out of this game. Then, we start Monday (at practice) and we’ve gotta be way better.”

This Week's Flyers

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